


Got You Where I Used To Lay

by feveredpitch



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M, beginning of relationship, tattooed bones, tattooed jim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-26
Updated: 2014-01-26
Packaged: 2018-01-10 01:30:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1153175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feveredpitch/pseuds/feveredpitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>based on <a href="http://wilwheaton.co.vu/post/74400185178/jonkennex-star-trek-au-where-everything-is-the">this post</a> by tumblr user jonkennex</p>
            </blockquote>





	Got You Where I Used To Lay

There was more to Leonard McCoy than meets the eye. But then again, everyone has secrets, don't they?

Leonard McCoy was a professional above anything else. As much of a bad influence as Jim Kirk was and as much as he had rubbed off on him, Leonard abided by the strict Starfleet regulations set in place.

"You can't hide anything from me, Bones. I know all your secrets," Jim would say with a smile and a twinkle in his eye that said he had it all figured out.

"Kid," Bones would reply with a laugh, "what you don't know about me could just about fill up the goddamn Grand Canyon."

Sure, Jim knew the basic things. He knew he was a divorced father from Georgia. Jim knew that he had a fear of flying and was always in a general state of worry over Jim dying or getting severely injured because of his own stupidity.

But Jim has only brushed the surface. He didn't know that he wasn't the first person to call him _Bones._

And Jim didn't know that he has never actually seen his hands.

***

While Leonard was known as an accomplished surgeon, psychologist and an exobiologist (and often considered an expert in space psychology), during medical school and his subsequent residency his true love and expertise was in osteology.

It was in those early years where his hands started to build up their legacy and he was originally given the nickname of Bones because of his encyclopedic knowledge of every inch of the human body and his love of naming each bone on his lover that he was currently focused on as he slowly took them apart inch by inch.

It was his girlfriend his last year of medical school that gave him the idea. She had an extreme oral fixation and spent an endless amount of time with his fingers between her lips.

"You know, Bones," she whispered to him one night, "these hands deserve a little recognition, don't you think?"

"What d'ya have in mind?" he whispered back, trying to control the moans that couldn't help but escape every time her tongue gently flicked over the pad of his fingers

“What are your opinions on tattoos, Mr. McCoy?” she responded coyly.

“Guess I never really gave much thought to ‘em, to be honest,” he countered. “You thinking I should get my hands tattooed?”

“You should,” she slowly stroked each of his fingers, imitating the soft twisting motion she had used countless numbers of time on his dick. “They say that tattoos show your love. Your passion. Your legacy. So your hands should be bones.”

He paused to think about it, but got sidetrack as she got tired of his hands for the evening and slowly slid down his body to continue her oral fixation elsewhere on his body.

First thing the next morning, Leonard called up the local tattoo shop and made an appointment.

One week later, he had his bones.

And the girlfriend that came up with the idea? One year later, Bones made her his wife.

***

Starfleet regulations and his own personal beliefs about what a professional in the workplace looks like caused him to find ways to cover up his tattoos. While he was proud of them and what they stood for, he also knew that to be taken seriously as a medical professional, he couldn’t have them out. The advances in technology and accessories however made flesh gloves a daily staple of his.

In Georgia, after he would get off of work, the gloves would literally come off. He freely showed off his anatomic ink with his friends and coworkers. Jocelyn especially loved showing it off to people, loved everyone knowing it was her idea.

After the divorce, however, Leonard decided that he wasn’t going to be her Bones anymore. He thought briefly about getting the markings removed, but he decided against it. It was a good reminder to him once he entered Starfleet about everything he lost and the person he couldn’t become again.

He made a promise to himself before he boarded that shuttle in Iowa. He was going to keep his head down and do his job. He was a doctor, dammit, not a socialite. He could stay polite to those who he needed to be polite to and keep himself guarded so no one else could get too close.

That resolution lasted a whole five minutes after he boarded the shuttle when he heard a calming voice sitting next to him after his freak out.

“I think these things are pretty safe.”

Leonard turned around to glare and was thrown off by the bright blue eyes staring back at him that were embedded into the most beautiful man he had ever laid eyes on.

_Fuck_ , he thought.  _There goes that._

But luckily, he was able to keep close to his resolution. Well, mostly. He didn’t seem out romantic companionship in anyone, but he was never able to shake off Jim Kirk after that.

Not that he wanted to.

Not that he even tried.

***

Their years at the Academy, Jim had a reputation of being reckless and stupid and Leonard had a reputation of trailing after Jim, berating his stupidity while fixing him up for the next adventure. After their appointment on the Enterprise, their roles remained the same as Captain and CMO. Jim would go off on one away mission or another and Leonard would be there to fix whatever he hurt every time.

***

It was another day in the life of Leonard McCoy. Another day where his best friend was off on what was supposed to be a simple diplomatic peace keeping mission. And another day where he was alerted to prepare the medical bay because his fearless Captain is about to be his patient once again due to going off and doing something pointlessly stupid.

As they brought Jim in and placed him on the biobed, Bones tried to assess the damage. It looked like he had been grazed with stray phaser fire that had burned through his shirt and was threatening to adhere permanently  to his skin if Leonard didn’t move quickly.

“Jim, listen to me. I need to cut this shirt off of you right now before it sticks and you end up losing skin.”

“Wait, Bones! Don’t!” Jim protested.

“I swear to god, Jim, I will hypo your ass so fast if you try and fight me on this,” Bones glared at him until Jim gave him a nervous nod. Threatening to hypo your Captain was never a good idea, but Bones had to let him know he meant business.

As he cut off the shirt, his eyes widened as he sees what Jim apparently thought he had to hide.[ An anatomically correct tattoo of his rib bones right underneath his heart](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pL5xvnkW3Fo/T7qnYOGU0eI/AAAAAAAAAYo/40kLTL8nBx8/s1600/inside-chest-ribs-tattoo.jpg). He reached down to gently run his fingers along.

“Jim, why did you never tell me you had this? This is ama--”

Leonard’s fingers froze and he stopped breathing momentarily as his eyes swiped across the inscription below the tattoo.

_ All I’ve got left are my bones. _

“Bones,” Jim started.

“Not now, Jim,” Bones answered a little too harshly for Jim’s liking.

“Please, listen. God, please don’t hate m--”

“I. Said. Not. Now.” Bones replied, his nostrils flaring and his eyes hard.

Jim swallowed the lump that was building in his throat and nodded, trying to blink away the tears forming in his eyes.

***

When Bones returned to his quarters at the end of his shift, he wasn't surprised to find Jim sitting on his couch waiting for him. The sound of the door _whooshing_ open startled him and he jumped to his feet.

_ He’s nervous _ , Bones noticed. Jim's arms were stiff at his side, his hands clenching and unclenching. Neither of them said a word. From an outsider's standpoint, it looked like an old western standoff.

Bones made the first move crossing the room making it to Jim in five easy steps. He reached out and grabbed the hem of Jim's shirt, looking in his eyes for confirmation that what he was about to do was okay. Jim nodded his head slightly and raised his arms as Bones removed the plain white t-shirt Jim  had thrown on as he was released from the Medical Bay.

Jim screwed his eyes shut unable to look at Bones while he was under such scrutiny. Bones glanced down and noticed that Jim was clenching his hands so hard his knuckles were turning white. Jim's breathing was shallow and uneven and Bones didn't know if he had ever seen him so nervous before. He took a few seconds to enjoy his best friend being completely out of his element before taking a little pity on him.

Bones lifted his hand and gently runs his index finger along Jim's ribs, reverently caressing the black ink.

"Is this what I think it is?" Bones asks him.

A short breath of air comes out of Jim's nose as he replies.

"What do you think it is?"

_Smartass_ , Bones thinks.

"Let me rephrase my question. Is this," Bones flattened his hand to press his palm directly over the tattoo to emphasize his point, "for me?"

You could hear a pin drop in the room as Jim slowly opened his eyes and stared at Bones for the first time since he took his shirt off.

He swallowed hard and when the words wouldn't come he just nodded an affirmation.

Bones' eyes widen and Jim sees a flash of possessiveness before Bones lowers his head and places his lips at the center of the tattoo.

He kisses every inch of the ink before kissing his way up Jim's sternum, working his way up to the long, slender column of Jim’s neck.

Jim frames Bones’ hands in his and brings Bones’ fingers up to his lips and that’s when the notices them. His eyes widen in shock and disbelief.

“Bones!”

“Yeah, kid?” Bones answered, smiling into Jim’s neck.

“What are these?” Jim’s tone kept getting higher the longer he stared at the ink.

“They’re tattoos, Jim,” Bones replied with a smug smile.

“Yeah, I realize that I’m not stupid. But when? Whe--why?” Jim had a million questions and none of them could come out in a fully formed coherent sentence even if his life had depended on it.

Bones laughed and indulged the kid’s spoken and unspoken questions.

“My last year of medical school. It was an old girlfriend’s idea. I had a fixation and a well known obsession with osteology. Not to mention my hands had a certain, well,  reputation .”

Jim’s eyebrow went sky high, mimicking Leonard’s most common facial expression.

“ _Reputation_?”

“Did I stutter?” Bones asked with a teasing glint in his eye, “Come on now, kid. Haven’t you ever wondered how the story of my  _ legendary  _ _hands_ got started?”

“Shit. I guess I never really thought about it,” Jim answered honestly.

A slow smile spread across Bones’ face as he leaned in to whisper into Jim’s ear, so close that his lips brushed against his lobe when he spoke.

“You thinking ‘bout it now?”

Jim swallowed hard and when he answered with a strangled  _yeah_ , I am  his voice broke. He reached down to take ahold of Bones’ hand, carefully studying the anatomic ink.

“You know, I know a little bit about bones myself,” Jim stated evenly.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” he replied as he brought Bones’ hand up to his lips. “I know that there are 27 bones in the human hand.”

His tongue darted out to gently lick the pad of Bones’ middle finger, “for instance, I know that this part is the distal phalanges.” He slowly licked his way down to the second knuckle, “then the intermediate phalanges. And of course you can’t forget about the proximal phalanges,” Jim continued as he locked eyes with Bones and slowly slid Bones’ middle finger into his mouth, groaning sinfully as his teeth grazed the aforementioned digit.

“Goddammit Jim,” Bones growled as he jerked his hand out of Jim’s before grabbing Jim by the back of the neck and jerking him forward until their lips crashed together.

Their first kiss wasn’t a sweet and chaste affair. It was messy and wet, their tongues each trying desperately to taste what they have both wanted for so long. Hands that greedily wandered each other’s bodies, trying to feel everything all at once.

Jim’ wrapped his arms around Bones’ middle, bringing them impossibly closer together and Bones could easily feel Jim’s hardness beneath his uniform. He begrudgingly broke them apart so they could both catch up on the necessity that was oxygen.

“As much as I don’t want to pause this,” Bones started, breathing heavily, “I have a desperate desire to get you horizontal right now.”

"Yeah, horizontal sounds good right now."

They made their way over to Leonard's bed, hastily removing their clothing on the way so that was one less thing they had to deal with once they got where they were going.

Jim seemed almost shy as he crawled into the bed, Leonard noticed. With the initial rush of adrenaline passing, reality was starting to set in with what was happening. It was such a sudden change in their dynamic, in their entire relationship. He felt like they needed to discuss this, but staring at Jim's beautiful naked body sprawled out in the middle of his bed, he decided that the discussion could wait.

He followed Jim onto the bed, crawling up to the headboard and half covering Jim’s body with his.  He leaned in slowly to capture Jim’s lips in a proper kiss, his hands softly tracing the tattoo that was on Jim’s chest.

“So, you heard my story. I think it’s time I heard yours.”

Jim’s face flush deep crimson as he tried to tuck his head into Bones’ neck.

“C’mon, you figured it out.”

“I figured out the why, yeah. But I wanna know the when. And actually, I want to know a better reason for why.”

Jim grabbed a blanket that was thrown at the foot of the bed and covered them up while he gathered his thoughts. He wasn’t sure how much he wanted to tell Bones.  _ Hell _ , he thought,  _ he already knows the more embarrassing part of it. _

“It was, um, right before we graduated the Academy. The night after I pass the Kobiyashi Maru.”

“You mean the night after you cheated the Kobiyashi Maru?”

“Semantics, Bones. You wanna hear the story or not?”

Bones mimed him zipping his lips and throwing away the key and motioned for Jim to continue.

“Alright. Well, it was that night and I was feeling kind of high on my accomplishment and a little melancholy because I knew I was graduating soon.”

Bones gave him a side glance and raised both of his eyebrows at him.

“Okay, and maybe I had some influence by my friend Jose Cuervo, but that’s not the point. Anyways, I decided I wanted something to commemorate my time at the Academy and in my altered state of mind, I figured a tattoo was the best way to do it. So I found the number of a 24 hour tattoo shop off of Castro and made my way there.

“I knew I wanted something special and on the way over there I came up with the idea of getting it tattooed on my ribs, right below my heart. But once I got there, I realized I didn’t have the faintest clue of what I wanted. So the guy working there asked me if I was positive about where I wanted it and I said yeah, of course. Then he told me something that close to my heart, it should be something that represented my heart’s greatest desire. He told me to close my eyes and let my heart speak about what I really wanted and the first thing - hell, the only thing - that came to mind was  Bones. All I’ve got left are my bones

“Of course, he didn’t know the backstory so he just went with the literal interpretation,” Jim paused to quietly finger his ink, a slow smile spreading at the thought of what it means to him, “and it’s perfect. Of course, the next morning when I sobered up I freaked out. Not because I regretted it or it wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but I was so damn scared of you seeing it and freaking out because of it.  What happened earlier with how you reacted? I have envisioned that a thousand times over, each time you freaking out exactly like that. Of course, never in my wildest dream did I imagine we would end up like this.”

“It’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” Bones said, leaning down to properly kiss the ink that was apparently a dedication to him.

“Why’d you freak out like that then?” Jim asked.

“It threw me for a loop, kid. I’ve thought a million times about that moment where I would find out that somehow against all hope you had feelings for me too. I didn’t imagine it being in the middle of a crowded medbay after you’ve done something incredibly stupid for the millionth damn time. I especially didn’t think that it would be because of, well,  this ,” Bones said, pointing to the offending ink.

“So, you’ve thought about it?” Jim tried to change the subject off of his tattoo as he ran his fingers through Bones’ hair.

“Million times a day, kid,” Bones answered, leaning forward once more to capture Jim’s lips in a passionate kiss. “Wanna know what else I’ve thought about a million times?”

Jim’s heart was racing as he managed to squeeze a breathless  yeah  out of his seemingly paralyzed vocal chords.

They spent the rest of the night tangled in a mess of limbs, taking turns making up for so many missed years and hundreds of missed opportunities.

***

The highlight of Jim’s night was when he was on his stomach, Bones’ blanketed on top of him slowly thrusting in and out, making sure Jim’s cock was grinding against the sheet with every thrust. Bones had Jim’s hands pinned down, their hands intertwined so Jim couldn’t reach down and stroke himself despite how achingly hard he was and how little friction he was getting. Bones seemed to be enjoying Jim’s agony, taking his time licking the salty sweat at the top of Jim’s spine, softly humming against his skin. 

“Baby,” Bones moaned, “fuck, darlin’ you feel so good.”

“Mmm you too,” Jim replied, trying to arch back as much as he could against Bones’ hips.

“Love you, Jim,” Bones whispered as he picked up his pace, his thrusts becoming more erratic as he neared completion. He let go of Jim’s hand to grab ahold of Jim’s cock, stroking it in time with his thrusts. “Love you so much.”

Bones came with a strangled cry as he felt Jim shudder through his orgasm seconds after Bones’ hit.

After a few moments, Bones gently eased out of Jim and they both collapsed against the pillow.

“What was that - three?” Jim asked.

Bones just laughed and held up the correct amount of fingers.

“Four, actually.”

“Four. Holy shit. And, uh, that thing you said?” Jim inquired nervously.

“Yeah?” Bones countered.

“You really mean that?”

“Yeah I do.”

“Okay. Good,” Jim laid there for a moment letting it sink it. “Me too, you know. I, uh. Love you. Too.”

Bones couldn’t help the loud guffaw that came over him as he rolled to his ride, carefully tracing Jim’s tattoo once more.

“Yeah, I kind of figured that one out for myself.”


End file.
